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Linux Inside … ThingMagic Sargas

Our ThingMagic Sargas just arrived. This is a small (87mm x 80 mm x ) fixed RFID reader that packs a nice punch. It has 2 high performance UHF RFID antenna ports capable of reading 750 tags a second at distances over 9 meters and an ethernet port, but it also has a BLE, USB, 4 GPIOs, micro-SD, and HDMI. Inside there is a 1GHz ARM Cortex 8 running Linux (Debian) where you can run your own code.

We will use the Sargas as a second reader so we can manage more RFID Antennas covering a larger space. Initially we will connect the Sargas to a Raspberry Pi 3 in the same arrangement we used previously with the ThingMagic M6. In that configuration the pi 3 runs the AMTech Gateway and it communicates with the reader using LLRP over ethernet.

The next step will be to move the gateway inside the Sargas, so we no longer need the pi 3. This should be straight-forward; Debian running Node.js.

After that we want to run applications directly in the Sargas using the HDMI to connect an external monitor. We have not yet decided on what to try out first. The application could just report on the setup and simple statistics, or can be an actual application. For example, a Sargas can be combined with a couple of short-range antennas and a large monitor, to provide a smart display for clothing that has RFID tags.

Ideally, we would like to write these applications using NativeScript, similar to how we want to use NativeScript to write RFID applications for the Invengo XC-1003, but more on that later…